• Memory
  • Memory home
  • shop by memory type
  • DDR3
  • DDR2
  • DDR
  • SDRAM
  • EDO
  • Fast Page Mode
  • Performance Memory
  • Netbook Memory
  • Server Memory
  • Printer Memory
• Performance Memory
  • Ballistix home
  • High-Performance Memory
  • DDR3 Ballistix™
  • DDR2 Ballistix™
  • DDR3 Ballistix™ Tracer
  • DDR2 Ballistix™ Tracer
  •  
  • Certified Memory
  • CrossFire™ Certified
  • Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Edition
  • NVIDIA® SLI™-ready Certified
• Mac Memory
• Flash Cards
  • Flash Card home
  • Shop By Card Type
  • Secure Digital™
    • 
  • microSD™
    • 
  • CompactFlash™
    • 
  • xD-Picture Card™
    • 
  • Flash Card Readers
  • Refurbished Products
• USB Drives
  • USB Drives home
  • USB Flash Drives
  • Crucial Gizmo!™
  • Lexar™ JumpDrive®
  • Secure USB Flash Drives
• Solid-State Drives
  • Solid-State Drives home
  • Solid-State Drives
  • 2.5" SSD
  • ExpressCard™ SSD
  • PCIe SSD
  • Mini PCIe SSD
  • SSD Accessories
  • Netbook Upgrade Center
  •  
  • Firmware Updates

As with digital images, it's difficult to predict exactly how many MP3s you can fit on a flash card. File size for one MP3 depends primarily on two different factors:

• Compression: When you convert (also called ripping) your CDs to create MP3s, you can select the bit-rate level through the software you are using to convert the files. The greater the bit-rate, the larger the file size and the better the sound quality. A standard audio CD has a bit-rate over 1400kbps, which is why a CD can hold only a few songs. (At 1400kbps, a four-minute song is 42MB.)
• Song Length: Simply put, the longer the song, the larger the file size.

Taking those two factors into consideration, the following charts can give you some general guidelines for how many MP3s average users can fit on various sizes of flash cards.

The actual number of MP3s per card can vary depending on the length of the songs, MP3 format, and player model.

Most of today's handheld computers or PDAs have a slot for flash memory. Extra flash cards give you room for more programs or large files. For instance, if you install additional applications on your PDA — such as games, an Internet browser, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, or your company's proprietary software — you'll probably quickly run out of storage space and will need an extra card.

Also, if you store important data on your handheld, a flash card gives you an easy way to back up your data. Plus, many of the newer handhelds also double as MP3 players, audio recorders, and/or digital cameras. If you want to use these features, you'll almost certainly need more storage space to hold your photos and music.

The size of the card you should buy for your PDA will depend on your reason for buying the card. If you're looking for extra storage space for your programs and files, we recommend buying the largest card(s) you can. If you want to use your card to back up data, you might be better off with several small cards so that you can back up to a different card every day.

HOW IMPORTANT IS SPEED?

One of the most common questions we get about our flash cards is, "How fast is it?" The speed of Crucial flash products is rated with an X, such as "40X." Essentially, it means that the higher the number next to the X, the faster the Crucial card's write speed. (Look familiar? You've seen a similar rating system when buying CD-ROMs.)

But be aware that not all flash sellers use the same speed rating system. Some sellers don't rate their cards at all, while some sellers rate cards by the READ speed, which is always faster than the write speed. While this may make their cards APPEAR to be faster, it is the write speed (also called data transfer rate) that is the true indicator of how fast a card can move data.

The speed rating system used for flash cards is based on the rating system used in the optical drive industry. A data transfer rate of 1X means that the card can transfer data at 150 kilobytes per second (KB/s). So what would be the read/write speed of a 12X card be in megabytes (MB) per second?

Although actual speeds vary based on things like the quality of your flash card, the size and settings of your files, and the speed of your host device (which we'll talk about a little later), for the most part, you can reasonably estimate a card's read/write performance. For example, let's say you've taken 30 high-resolution pictures, each one 3.5MB in size. Here are the theoretical speeds at which a flash card would read/write data at the following speed ratings:

That seems logical, but really, the answer is, "It depends." Just because a card has a particular speed rating, that doesn't mean it will actually transfer data at that rate in every device.

Why? Well, a flash card is a lot like the memory in a computer — you can have the fastest memory on the planet, but if you have a computer that isn't designed to run memory at that fast speed, the memory can't operate to its full potential. It's the same situation with devices such as digital cameras, cell phones, your computer's built-in flash card reader, and so on — basically, you're only as fast as your interface. If the host device has a slower read/write speed than your card, the card can't operate any faster than the host device's read/write speed. For example, if you use a 20X flash card in a camera designed to work at 12X speed, you'll be transferring data at the slower 12X speed- the "slowest common denominator."

As we pointed out before, typically, high-speed flash cards (40X-80X) benefit only high-speed devices — for example, high-quality digital cameras with a pixel rate above 5 megapixels. So remember our general rule of thumb: if your camera has a pixel count (resolution) of less than five megapixels, you can safely buy "normal" speed cards rated at 20X. But if you have a five-megapixel or higher camera, you might benefit from purchasing high-speed cards.

HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT FLASH CARD FOR YOU IN JUST MINUTES.

If you're shopping for flash products at a brick-and-mortar store, you'll first have the hassle of driving to the store, then trying to locate the product you need on your own. If you find a salesperson and ask which card you should buy, you'll probably hear something like, "Try this; you can always bring it back if it doesn't work for you."

If you want to buy the right thing the first time, you need the Crucial Flash Memory Advisor tool. Other online vendors may offer selectors that look similar to ours, but the truth is, there's only one Crucial Flash Memory Advisor tool, designed by The Memory Experts^sm at Crucial Technology. All you have to do is tell us which camera or other device you have, and in just three clicks, you'll know which flash cards will work for you. We guarantee that the card you select through the Memory Advisor will be 100 percent compatible with your system and your device, or we will refund the price of the incompatible card. In addition, we back our cards with a limited lifetime warranty and free technical support.

Crucial is a division of Micron Technology, a company that manufactures flash. As a result, we have expert knowledge and close relationships with device manufacturers that help us ensure that all the products we sell are high-quality and compatible with the latest portable electronic devices on the market. We've invested in the testing and technology that ensure your shopping experience will be as fast and as hassle-free as possible.

HOW TO TELL IF YOU NEED A FLASH CARD READER

What is a flash card reader?

A flash card reader is a device that contains either one flash card port in a particular card format or a set of flash card ports, each in a different flash format. It attaches to your USB port and acts like another drive in your computer. The card reader allows you to transfer data between your electronic device (such as a digital camera or PDA) and your computer without having to connect the device itself to the computer.